Melek leaves

Germany 1985

16 mm, colour, 88 min, German with English and Spanish subtitles

Summary:

The real life of one Turkish immigrant tells more than statistics and the worn-out slogans about foreigner-politics in West-Berlin. The film depicts some facts about the life and the destiny of Melek, a 38 years old Turkish woman, who decides to go back to her home country after 14 years of living and working in Berlin.
It's the portrait of an unusual person, a woman with quite a lot of chuzpeh and a strong will to survive. She forces us to reconsider the stereotyped idea we commonly have about a "typical" Turkish woman.
It's impossible to classify Melek into one-sided categories. And the same happens to the film about Melek: it's a documentary but also a fiction, a collection of images and associations about her Istanbul dreams and her Berlin experiences.
"Melek leaves" is an attempt to describe the invisible wounds that have marked a "Gastarbeiterin", a migrant worker, after 14 years in West Germany.

Press comments:

"...'Melek Leaves' does far more than simply record Gemany's treatment of guest workers: it takes a provocative, sideways look at the roots of racist attitudes, the conventions of film-making and the difficulty of turning messy, awkward, real lives into neat documentaries. A film, in fact, which ends up far bigger than the sum of its parts."
Edinburgh Film Festival Programme, Edinburgh (Jane Root, August of 1985)

"...'Melek Leaves' was programed in the festival [London Film Festival] and proved as well to be one of the critical highlights..."
Asian Times, London (Dorothea Moritz, December 12, 1985)